By Jung Min-hoHomosexuals account for nearly half of new HIV infections in Korea, according to government data revealed Monday.

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDCP) statistics show that 712 people were confirmed to have been infected with HIV in 2016. Among them, 325 people (45.6 percent) contracted the virus from homosexual activities.

The exact size of the gay population here is unknown. But the Korea Institute of Sexology's 2011 survey showed that seven out of 1,000 Korean adults (0.7 percent) have had homosexual experience.

Most of the infected people were men (92.8 percent). By age, people in their 40s accounted for 26.8 percent, followed by 30s (21.5 percent) and 50s (21.3 percent).

HIV is a type of virus called a retrovirus, which infects the human immune system. Over time, it may cause AIDS by eventually killing off the white blood cells that fight infections.

The accumulated number of Koreans testing positive for HIV surpassed 10,000 for the first time in 2015, according to the KCDCP.